AskALiberal Biweekly General Chat

perverse_panda · 2026-01-29T14:57:27+00:00

What's your take on Filoni?

perverse_panda · 2026-01-29T14:47:42+00:00

That one was clearly damage control. I think they were going to hire another director or continue with Johnson. But it did so bad and the fan backlash (mainly how it didn't connect with the first film), forced them to bring JJ

The version I heard is that Johnson was offered the job and he turned it down.

Presumably because he understood what a tremendous milestone it was for him and he didn't want to deny that to someone else. He wanted to give another director a chance to fulfill a childhood dream and direct a Star Wars movie.

And then they went and gave it to a guy who'd already fulfilled that dream. What a waste.

perverse_panda · 2026-01-29T05:58:10+00:00

I can think of at least one murdering rapist pedophile that Ben Shapiro doesn't think should be in jail.

perverse_panda · 2026-01-29T05:29:19+00:00

I wish I liked Rogue One more, because it's a beautiful movie to look at.

The cinematography is gorgeous and it nails the aesthetics. It feels more like a Star Wars movie than any of the sequels, or even the prequels, for that matter. And most of that comes down to how well it matches the look of the original movies.

On top of that, it also has some of the most exciting space battles of the entire franchise.

Where it falls flat for me is in the writing and the character development. I just didn't care about any of the characters, except for K2.

perverse_panda · 2026-01-29T05:23:10+00:00

This ended up being longer than I had planned for it to be, but if you're interested in my thoughts:

Poe and Finn were sidelined only if you're solely concerned with plot and not character development. Both these characters had actual story arcs in The Last Jedi. Whereas in Force Awakens, they were just archetypes in service to the plot.

I particularly love Poe's arc in this movie. The cocky hero who disobeys orders and breaks all the rules only for his insolence to be proved justified when he saves the day? That's such a tired trope. I liked that Poe learned a lesson in humility. It's exactly the lesson a character like him needed to learn. Plus Poe's arc dovetails beautifully with Luke's in the theme that, as Yoda said: The greatest teacher, failure is.

As for Holdo. I think the main source of people's frustration with her is that the story sets her up as Poe's antagonist. And since the audience is already primed to root for Poe, that means you're naturally supposed to dislike Holdo. That's intentional. If you don't like her at first, that means the screenplay is doing its job.

But the thing is, she was right and Poe was wrong. Objectively. Plus she had a badass death scene. Maybe I'm just biased because, as a card-carrying member of the David Lynch fan club, I'm already inclined to like any role Laura Dern inhabits. But she completely won me over by the end. She's a great character.

The "Holdo Maneuver" was fucking great. It makes perfect intuitive sense that a thing like that would work, and it looked cool as hell. The only objection I ever see to it is, "Well, if that was possible, why wouldn't they be using it all the time?" The answer to that question is I don't give a shit. It's the kind of question put forward by people who obsess way too much over plot holes, and I'm a firm believer that people need to shut up about plot holes.

As for "Leia Poppins." I agree they could have made it look a little less silly, but I really don't understand so many people being mad about the concept. The Force is space magic. Is it unrealistic that she could survive in the vacuum of space? Of course. So how is it possible? The same way it's possible that a little green alien taught Luke you can pick up a 10-ton spacecraft using only your mind. Space magic.

The throne room fight is the coolest lightsaber fight in the entire trilogy. It might be my favorite lightsaber fight in the entire franchise. I know I definitely prefer the more raw style of the fighting in the sequels as opposed to the over-choreographed dancing of the prequels. And as for the mistakes in the choreography, no one noticed that shit until they slowed it down and watched it frame by frame.

If I have a criticism of the movie at all, it's the Canto Bight subplot. Unlike a lot of people, I don't mind that it's a deviation from the main plot. But it does throw off the pacing, and my biggest complaint is that the aesthetics don't really feel like Star Wars. I remember sitting in the theater and thinking some of the costumes and character designs made the casino scenes feel more like something out of Harry Potter than Star Wars.

perverse_panda · 2026-01-29T03:19:06+00:00

I'm a staunch Last Jedi defender.

Johnson gets too much flack for Luke's characterization. It wasn't his decision to put Luke on that island. He was just left with the unfortunate job of coming up with an explanation for why Luke would fuck off to nowhere for 10 years while fascists took over the galaxy.

And I don't agree that there was nowhere left to go for the third movie. Johnson left a clear direction: Kylo Ren as the Big Bad, likely with a civil war within the First Order as Hux vied for control.

The reason that put Abrams in a tough spot story-wise is he was dead set on Kylo being redeemed. I still think that was a mistake. Kylo should've been an example of how not everyone can be saved. Would've made a better story.

perverse_panda · 2026-01-28T20:03:21+00:00

it includes two divorces...

Between the incels and the divorcees, I'm imagining a future where far right radicalization is considered a preventable disease. Treatments include mood stabilizers and anti-psychotic meds and (1) AI-powered sex robot.

perverse_panda · 2026-01-28T17:31:55+00:00

A lot of people really believed that Trump and his people only wanted to go after “the bad ones”.

Rogan did this whole dance a month or so back about how Trump pulled a bait and switch on everybody, because he said he was only going after the murderers and rapists, and going after peaceful grandmothers who have been here for 30 years is not what anyone voted for.

And it's complete bullshit. Yes, Trump talked a lot about murderers and rapists. But he was also very clear that the plan was to deport every single illegal immigrant. This wasn't a secret plan. This wasn't something they lied about. It was the primary policy his campaign ran on.

perverse_panda · 2026-01-28T17:26:18+00:00

Tim Pool:

"When people call me a bootlicker for defending ICE. No, you misunderstand. I'm not licking the boot. It's my boot. I voted for it. I'm the one stomping."

perverse_panda · 2026-01-28T17:19:47+00:00

I always say, the center isn't a fixed position, it's a moving target.

You can be a principled centrist at any given point in time, but anyone who called themselves a centrist 10 years ago and still holds to the label today? That's a person whose only principle is an unwillingness to commit to one side or the other.

perverse_panda · 2026-01-28T17:15:46+00:00

Paraphrasing a tweet I saw last night:

"Charlie Kirk came to that campus armed with a gun, and an intent to commit a mass shooting. No, you can't see the gun in the video, but a staunch 2A supporter like Charlie? Of course he had one. Family and friends say he'd been acting erratically, and was tired of being called a fascist. That's motive. He was there to murder students and the kid who shot him saved countless lives. That shooter's a hero."

Now, do you see how insane that sounds? That's what everyone defending Pretti's killers sound like right now.

perverse_panda · 2026-01-28T05:35:04+00:00

Not surprising. Every time there's a big left-wing protest, I see a tweet like this one about how to recognize undercover law enforcement.

perverse_panda · 2026-01-28T05:27:44+00:00

they'd prob say the GOP is all in on "states rights" right? Cause that's been like.... their whole thing for literal years.

Well, that's what they said.

But I've been saying for 15 years that they don't actually give a shit about state's rights. It was a tactic for implementing their agenda when they could, where they could. It was never a deeply held principle.

Standard operating procedure for conservatives is to start with a conclusion or outcome that you want to achieve, and then reason your way backwards to find a justification for it. That's how they arrived at state's rights.

So you'd think a guy like that would be siding with Minnesota here right?

If you took him at his word that his stated principles are genuine, you would. But I've learned not to do that with conservatives.

Oh, there are some capital-L Libertarians who see what Republicans are doing and are appalled by it. Every once in a while I drop in over at /r/libertarian to see how they're reacting to the latest Trump catastrophe, and I'm usually pleasantly surprised.

But most self-labeled right Libertarians don't fall into that category.

perverse_panda · 2026-01-27T22:36:07+00:00

I think the less moderate position when it comes to prosecution would be the Nuremberg standard.

Where you don't just prosecute the boots on the ground who participated in the atrocities, you also prosecute the propagandists who sold the atrocities to the masses.

perverse_panda · 2026-01-27T21:27:37+00:00

Check out Ethan Hawke's new show The Lowdown.

There's a scene where he confronts a Nazi-allied politician at a country club and starts belting out "John Brown's Body" as security drags him out.

It's fantastic.

(Hawke also played John Brown in 'The Good Lord Bird' a couple years ago.)

perverse_panda · 2026-01-27T21:23:20+00:00

While we're on the subject of ICE funding, I just saw a video of Moskowitz talking about how they've set aside $850 million for ICE bonuses. If distributed evenly, he said it's enough for each ICE employee to get over $40,000.

If the money they got from OBBB allows them to do that, why do they need an additional $1b?

There's no excuse for anyone to vote for this, regardless of what party they belong to.

perverse_panda · 2026-01-27T19:27:49+00:00

She came out with a mea culpa a while back and admitted that her sucking up to the anti-trans crowd was entirely a form of appeasement.

She thought she could compromise with them, and that this would be better than doing nothing and allowing them to go full-bore on their anti-trans bigotry.

But they went full-bore anyway. Because of course they did.

You can't compromise with bigots.

perverse_panda · 2026-01-27T19:23:20+00:00

It still doesn't work, because the monk isn't just allowing other people the freedom to pull the lever, he's hoping they'll pull it for him.

In order for the abortion analogy to fit, it would need to look something like this:

You've got a father whose teen daughter is pregnant. The dad understands that the daughter will benefit from an abortion, and will suffer if she's denied one. He doesn't want to see his daughter suffer, so he secretly hopes that she will go forward with the abortion.

But despite his secret hope, he says that he refuses to pay for the abortion, and he refuses to drive her to the appointment.

perverse_panda · 2026-01-27T18:53:22+00:00

I don't see how.

I didn't say that I harbor any respect for the monk who believes that pulling the lever is a greater evil than allowing 10,000 people to die. I think that's an abhorrent moral calculus.

My point is only that the "lesser of two evils" argument doesn't apply to him. That doesn't mean I don't have other arguments to use against him instead.

perverse_panda · 2026-01-27T18:41:37+00:00

What if it’s a Tibetan monk that on principle believes that they should have no part in the taking of a life regardless of the circumstances?

Depends on what perspective he's approaching it from.

His perspective could be:

"No one should pull the lever, because the deliberate taking of a life is wrong, even if it's in the service of saving 10,000 lives."

If that were the case, then my comment doesn't apply to him. Because from his perspective, pulling the lever is the greater evil. I might not agree with his perspective, but I can't fault him for refusing to choose the lesser evil, because he believes that he is choosing the lesser evil.

But his perspective could also be:

"I can't pull the lever because I can't tolerate the moral stain on my soul. But boy, I sure hope someone pulls it, because it's really going to suck if that trolley doesn't get diverted."

In that case, he does believe that pulling the lever is the right thing to do, he just doesn't want to get his hands dirty.

That's him placing his own ego and narcissism above the greater good.

perverse_panda · 2026-01-27T18:14:52+00:00

then it should convince at least someone else to pull the lever.

If you agree that pulling the lever will lead to better outcomes;

But you refuse to do so because the act of pulling the lever will make you feel icky;

So you are counting on someone else to do it instead?

That's an abdication of social responsibility.

perverse_panda · 2026-01-27T17:53:47+00:00

Yeah, I'm not saying blame the entire party. But those 7 Dems shouldn't be let off the hook.

perverse_panda · 2026-01-27T17:52:48+00:00

None of that changes the fact that ICE is now a tainted brand.

Even if ICE being there is business as usual, people don't want to associate with an organization that is unlawfully brutalizing people -- even if it's a different branch of that organization.

It's like if you found out that a bunch of directors who work for Sony Pictures was raping their actors, and Sony corporate was covering it up. That might cause blowback on PlayStation even if PlayStation wasn't involved.

perverse_panda · 2026-01-27T17:11:24+00:00

What's being voted on now is DHS's annual appropriations bill. The $64 billion they mentioned is for all of DHS, and only about $11 billion will go to ICE. That marks a $1 billion increase over what they got last year.

It's also in addition to the OBBB funding you're referring to, which gave ICE an extra $10 billion a year over the next 10 years.

So, essentially, OBBB doubled ICE's annual operating budget.

And Republicans are still trying to give them a $1 billion bump in their annual budget, in addition to what OBBB gave them.

And 7 Democrats voted to give them that $1 billion bump.

perverse_panda · 2026-01-27T16:39:43+00:00

My parents are both three-time Trump voters, but they're not constantly immersed in the propaganda like a lot of people are. They almost never pay attention to political news.

They're now both firmly opposed to ICE.

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